On Tuesday, January 24, students, teachers, staff, and administrators gathered in the front of the library to see two juniors and six seniors present their fall Independent Studies. They studied a wide variety of topics, from comics to music composition to mathematics, and the showcase allowed them to display their findings with the Parker community.

Junior Zoë Gardner went first and presented her Independent Study about pressure ulcers. In the fall semester she conducted research on the stages, treatment, and prevention of pressure ulcers, as well as who is affected by them. She also did some work in a lab trying to come up with a method of treating or preventing pressure ulcers. Gardner said she hopes to continue with this project into the next semester.

Senior Franny Weed then discussed her year-long study of Virginia Woolf, which she started in the 2nd semester of last year. The research was originally planned for just that semester, but Weed said Woolf was so interesting to her that she had to continue. She studied Woolf through the lens of “How did her mental illness affect her work and relationships?”, examining Woolf’s personal life and writing. In addition to Tuesday’s presentation, Weed shared her work at Morning Ex the next day.

Senior Spencer Porter shared his study of classical and jazz composition. He analyzed hundreds of different aspects of composition throughout the semester, but ended up choosing the piece “An American in Paris,” by George Gershwin, a mix of classical and jazz, to present Tuesday. He took the gathered audience through the orchestral score (each instrument’s part in the piece), highlighting every theme he found and examining how they all intertwined to tell the story of the composition. Porter wrote the themes out by hand and arranged them on his computer in a program that allowed him to present this project to the audience.

Senior Cecilia Sheppard talked about her work on blogging, social media, and marketing strategy. A large part of her Independent Study revolved around the creation of her blog, ceciliaroses.com, where she writes about fashion, culture, and travel, as well as her own artwork and her clothing. Through her blog, Sheppard was also able to focus on finding her “voice” in the fall and reaching a specific audience through the use of that voice.

Senior Ryan Wessman presented a video he made about axiomatic discovery of math. He originally intended to study Georg Cantor and his influence on mathematics, but ended up also studying other topics such as cardinality and set theory. In the video he made, he presented on three paradoxes which he’d studied: Zeno’s Paradox, Russell’s Paradox, and the Liar’s Paradox.

Senior Julia Smith shared the introduction and first chapter of a comic book she is working on and talked a bit about how comics are made. She wrote the story to her book last April and illustrated the first part using the SketchBook Express app on her iPad. Smith wants to go into sequential art, or the use of images to form a series and tell a story, and said she enjoys combining literature and art. She also said she may try to self-publish her book when she finishes illustrating it.

Junior Mitchell Bedows presented on his study of architecture. His study took place in two parts: first, researching the architecture in five global cities–Chicago, Tel Aviv, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, and Barcelona, which he chose due to the city’s history or its architectural history–and second, remodeling an abandoned building in Chicago in order to benefit its neighboring community. Bedows chose the old Cook County Hospital and spent some time reading and learning about the building and its history. Afterward, he created a design on his computer, combining architectural styles he saw in the other four cities to generate what he called an “international style”: a building that could fit in any city. Finally, he laid out the building and its surroundings on paper in order to further plan his design.

Finally, senior Josh Kaufman presented a video he made on the philosophy of mathematics, or the foundations and results of mathematics. He spent the first part of the semester reading what he called “a bunch of dead people’s thoughts” on the philosophy of mathematics, and then wrote a research paper in hopes of producing some original philosophy. Afterwards, he made an eight-minute video, which explained the basic premise of how statements are made, to introduce his study to the group.